Holder: Undecided on CIA-Senate flap

The Justice Department is reviewing allegations that crimes may have been committed in a dispute between the Central Intelligence Agency and staffers for a Senate panel which oversees the spy agency, but hasn’t yet decided whether to launch a formal investigation, Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters Wednesday.

Responding to a question at a news conference, Holder confirmed that the Justice Department has received so-called referrals notifying prosecutors of possible criminal conduct involved in the CIA’s search of computers used by Senate Intelligence Committee aides and by the aides moving copies of CIA documents from a secure agency workspace to another secure facility on Capitol Hill.

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But the attorney general seemed to play down the significance of the referrals, and said it was not certain that a criminal probe would result.

“We get referrals all the time,” Holder said at a news conference announcing a settlement with automaker Toyota on an unrelated matter. “The fact that we get a referral does not necessarily mean we make a decision that we’re going to investigate on the basis of that referral.”

In his low-key discussion of the issues, the attorney general also raised the possibility that prosecutors might drop the matter.

“We are looking at the matters that have been referred to us before we make a determination about what action, if any, the Justice Department will take,” he said. “That’s all we’re doing, just reviewing the referrals.”

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwomen Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said last week that the acting general counsel of the CIA advised the Senate that he’d sent a criminal referral to the Justice Department regarding the removal of some CIA records from a workspace in Northern Virginia set up for Senate investigators to examine the agency’s interrogation practices under President George W. Bush.

Feinstein conceded that Senate staffers moved the documents in violation of an agreement with the CIA, but she said the action was needed to make sure the information was not destroyed. She also said that the secrecy of the records was not compromised.

Feinstein also complained bitterly about the CIA’s decision to search computers used by the Senate aides. CIA Director John Brennan has said that search was part of an effort to determine how the aides got the documents at issue, which he said were not among the files supposed to be turned over to the Senate investigators.

Feinstein said the CIA’s inspector general had looked into the search and referred that matter to the Justice Department as well.

Despite the dueling referrals, many lawyers and former intelligence officials are doubtful any criminal prosecution will result, since the people involved on both sides could argue plausibly that their actions were undertaken legitimately as part of their official duties.